Huh.

Think I'll ever remember this was here?

Prolly not.

Okay so I packed a drop spindle and some locks and drove from Texas to Vegas a couple of weeks ago and did ABSOLUTELY NO SPINNING.

Turns out, when you're in piercing classes morning to night and networking before, during, and after, it doesn't leave a lot of time for peaceful, in-room spinning!  Go figure!  Ha!

So then I proceeded to leave the wheel with its big glob of cat-rearranged milk sitting untouched in the baby's room, and the spindle in my bag.  I figured, man, I haven't even unpacked yet.  There will always be time for spinning laaaaater.

Well LATER IS NOW.  At least for a bit!  Instead of being responsible and getting a jump on some of the chores that would be harder to do at home, I whipped that little spindle out at work and finally wrestled my way through some locks.

Dude, I hate locks.

So much.

I will stick to batts and rovings for a while, methinks.

On the upside, a friend of mine who my husband and I taught to spin years ago is visiting Thursday, if I am not mistaken, and she's bringing her brand new Kromski wheel!  We'll spend the day hanging out and being a coupla Kromski babe's, draping yarn suggestively onto our pulsing, spinning bobbins.  Oh yes.

I've Been Spinning Again!

Crafting like mad!  It's the season for it.

Right now I have some suri on the wheel, blended with bamboo and a little bit of red firestar.  It basically looks like I've torn the hair right off of a goddess's head and am now tenderly and completely obsessively drafting it out onto the bobbing in tiny, lace weight plies.

Guys I know I say this all the time but it's fibersex.

I've recently finished a true three-ply (not chain plied!  First time ever!) of fall-colored BFL that was a blast, and a single (second time ever, eee!) of merino based heaven-batt with awesome stuff in it that I can't remember right now.  Both are waiting on me to set them, and I plan on thwacking the single a bit because I am horrified any single I make is going to drift apart mid-knit.

That 3 ply I made, by the way?  Used my new lazy kate.  Husbandcreature crafted me a three-bobbin lazy kate to attach to the base of my wheel to replace the kromski 2 ply one.  It's charmingly simple, and extraordinarily effective (even if the bars do point the wrong way).  I adore it!

He also made me a new orifice hook for Christmas, well, the handle to it.  He'll put the wire in it soon and I'll get to take it for a...spin.  Get it?

Ha...haha...

I love handcrafted shit.

Hmm, what else?  Crocheting!  And knitting!  I have picked up my husband's abandoned gift scarf for me made much too wide and out of red heart, because someone had to and it was just staring at me.  I've also finished a scarf for a cousin (who loved it!), made a poi (but not its mate), two fingerless gloves, half a bag for the baby toys, a pouch for my DND dice (don't judge), half a doily for my mum, a set of mittens and a matching hat with ear flaps and pompoms for baby Jack, uh...I can't remember what else.

CROCHET ALL THE THINGS.

And there's no slowing down now!  It's still cold outside!  KEEP TREADLING AND HOOKING.

Pictures to come, probably, maybe.

Later y'all!

Tiny bebbeh socks.

I've been knitting them.

Yeah, that's right, I have now knit FOUR complete items.  I can also comfortably say that I enjoy knitting with handspun luxury blends a whole lot more than I like knitting with commercial wool blends from The Hobster Lobster.  Which is what I'm calling Hobby Lobby now.

This yarn is way cooler.

I just finished making two baby socks (no they don't match).  The first was a hilarious underestimate of the size of my baby's foot, and was made on a trip to Iowa.  We're talking, ribbing didn't make it past the toes, here.  Just kinda...wiggled...hanging off his big toe...  Total fail.

The second was AWESOME and I'd post a picture if my a) phone was on, b) I felt like making a Ravelry entry at the moment, c) both a and b are true.

I'm super passionate today, y'all.

ANYhoo, the second sock actually fits (for now) and is made of merino, bamboo, and silk.  It was one of my many phat fiber samples that has been laying around, this one from The Droll Eclectic.  It's super soft.  I spun it into a fingering weight two ply and LOVED knitting it.  Even when I started over five or six times.  I even had a little left, which is exciting, considering how terrifying working a sock ankle-down is when you have like 30 yards of handspun and no clue how far that will go.

MADE IT.

So yes, socks made.  I need to make more, though.  Which is good, because me with no ongoing projects and only ends to sew in is basically disastrous.


NEVER SEW IN ENDS.

Just...here, if we have to justify it, just say everyone who deserves knit projects from you has probably pissed you off at some point that you just forgot about so give them a finished knit with loose ends and just let them THINK about what they've done wrong.  They'll humbly apologize (or not mention that you gave them an unfinished project) and everybody wins.  You win because you didn't have to sew in ends.  They win because they learned something about themselves.

Possibly that they, too, loathe sewing in ends.



Hey, why don't I make matching socks?  I have a reason for this.  It extends beyond Punky Brewster.  It also extends even beyond the fact that I can't remember the last time I wore matching socks.

See...babies lose socks.  They lose ALL the socks.

If they never matched to begin with I won't notice the loss of my dear handspun hand knit socks.

Plus I never have to knit a sock's mate.

HAHA!

I win.


It's also because I have like fifty 30-yard skeins of handspun from Phat Fiber samples and nothing to do with them, and I think puff blankets are weird and much too long of a project for someone as attention deficit as moi.

Okay, bye.

-Wednesday



Oh, P.S. - adorable sock pattern is here.